It seems that POW! WOW! Hawaii gets more ambitious each year with the plethora of quality local and international artists participating growing as a result. With our more focused coverage over, here is a recap of some of the murals and walls that we missed. Included here is a the finished mural from James Jean (in progress here) at the Honolulu Museum of Art (seen above) and Slick’s piece featuring the Hawaiian flag constructed from the script of Queen’s Lili‘uokalani Protest against the Treaty of Annexation in 1897 (seen below across from Fresh Cafe in […]

Working on probably the biggest wall of this year’s POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here), the legendary Doze Green and his team painted a mural with warm tones showing his signature characters in action. Using his recognizable line work and intuitive style, the artist who made his name on the streets of NYC came up with an interesting composition on a long wall. Spending days doing the fill ins and shading the large, almost tribal like characters, the sight of his mural slowly turned into a neighborhood attraction […]

The amazing roster this year for POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) also included legendary LA writer SABER (interviewed) and RVCA advocate Kevin Ancell. The MSK-affiliated SABER contributed a volcano and some of the figurative imagery rendered with amazing spray can control while the Bay Area-based Ancell (who also opened an exhibition that week) added his script and some other elements. Photo credit: The Seventh Letter (except portraits of Saber by Arrested Motion). Discuss POW! WOW! Hawaii here. Discuss Saber here.

Arguably one of the best murals created at this year’s POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) and one of the most unusual and interesting collaborations was the one by Esao Andrews and Aaron Horkey. None of the artists are really known for their mural skills or even large scale works, so it was interesting to watch their talents pulling off one of the most detailed and exceptional pieces created. Painting on the facade of Fresh Cafe in Kaka’ako, this was Esao’s second ever mural he’s worked on, while […]

While most artists were painting large murals at one location, Ernest Zacharevic contributed to POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) with several smaller interventions scattered around town, making visitors go on a real hunt for his work. Due to their nature, a few of them actually got buffed soon after their creation, but some of them stayed up waiting for people to discover them. The first piece he created was on the side of the bridge on Ala Moana Blvd at the beginning of Waikiki. The Lithuanian artist painted one of […]

Probably most original and unique artist of this year’s POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) was the Minneapolis-based HotTea. Known for his yarn installations on fences, he found a very original and harmless way of expressing himself on the streets. He created this technique after getting in trouble for doing graffiti but still wanting to be able to continue bombing, but not get in trouble. Thinking of his grandma’s knitting skills, he found a way to incorporate this unusual medium in creating public works. His unique style and […]

One of that artists this year for POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here) that painted in a location off the beaten path was the MSK-affiliated Sever. The graffiti writer who made his name in Atlanta and has been known in the past to use his skills in a satirical way (see Street Art Is Dead mural) once again came up with some clever imagery for this wall in Kaka’ako. Take a look some more detailed photos below… Discuss Sever here.

Mixing their two different but very compatible styles, Case Maclaim from Germany and Smithe from Mexico created one of the most interesting pieces on this year’s POW! WOW! Hawaii (more coverage here). The imagery they chose was a commentary about the preservation of coral life and the effect of human activity on its future. Smithe painted a detailed illustrative part showing a human head with coral for brains, surrounded with different organic & surrealistic elements and creatures. Case wrapped this image with a series of his recognizable […]